Florida Gulf Coast's Sherwood Brown, center, celebrates with teammates after their 81-71 win over San Diego State in a third-round game in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 24, 2013, in Philadelphia. Florida Gulf Coast became the first No. 15 seed to make the Sweet 16. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

PHILADELPHIA — There was never supposed to be a Sunday for Florida-Gulf Coast in the NCAA Tournament, so it followed that there wouldn’t be a Saturday night, either, for a 15th-seeded tournament team popularly expected to be gone early.

But it wasn’t, and there was, and that made the between-games task simple.

“We went to Pat’s for cheesesteaks,” Eagles forward Eddie Murray said. “Everybody there was telling us how much they were behind us. They were saying, ‘Oh, man, you guys are from Florida-Gulf Coast? We are all going to be behind you. Good luck.’ It was great.’”

That was the story of an NCAA first-round weekend at the Wells Fargo Center that at one point seemed ordinary, but which wound up a winner.

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“A huge success,” Joe Giunta said. “Huge.”

Giunta, the Springfield resident by way of Neumann College, is the senior associate athletic director for sports administration at Temple and was the tournament manager for the Temple-hosted Philadelphia site. Though blessed with Duke — as sell-able a ticket as there is in the college game — the WFC was also stuck with enough programs that Philadelphia sports fans couldn’t have identified had they been given media guides.

But then FGCU upset Georgetown, and San Diego State looked good, and when they would meet in the Round of 32 Sunday, there suddenly was not a more alluring match on the sheet. And by the second half, with San Diego State unable to generate second shots against the Gulf Coast 1-3-1, that meant one thing: That the Eagles would begin waving their arms, inviting a capacity crowd to join the fun.

“We were down at halftime,” forward Chase Fieler said. “So we needed to get more energy like we did against Georgetown. So we did, and the crowd stayed behind us.”

There were FGCU fans and San Diego State fans, but not more than, oh, 1,000 total. Duke filled most of the seats for the night’s second game, against Creighton, which had mild support. But the majority of the casual fans were in an uproar, appreciating FGCU becoming the first No. 15 seed in NCAA tournament history to see the second weekend with an 81-71 victory.

So, the question: Does Philadelphia deserve more — a Final Four, someday, maybe? Though the NCAA has pinned that event in domes since 1997, there has been recent consideration given toward relaxing that requirement. Among the reasons is that there are virtually no domes on the east or west coasts.

With whispers beginning that Philadelphia might be interested in hosting the 2024 Olympics, it is not too soon to consider a facilities upgrade. Philadelphia would probably require 11 years just to license pretzel carts outside the place, let alone to approve, construct and open an Olympics-quality dome. Eventually, though, one would be necessary, and the possibility of hosting a Final Four would figure high in the contributing motivation.

“Obviously, everybody wants to look at tickets and bodies in the seats, and that’s been a success,” Giunta said. “But everything has run smoothly. Everyone stayed healthy. The games have been phenomenal. I think we had a great story here in Florida-Gulf Coast.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t host a Final Four. But they are trying to maximize the number of bodies they can get into an arena. I have heard this: Some of the domes have a lack of great seats, and that is a concern. So I think there is a chance we could get a Final Four. I know the NCAA loves this city. And I know the NCAA loves this building. And I think they love us at Temple. Temple hasn’t hosted anything like this since 1992, when Christian Laettner hit that shot for Duke. I know this: We will be doing something sooner than 20 years from now.”

It could take 20 years for another FGCU story to develop. But on a weekend that wasn’t supposed to be so captivating, Philadelphia basketball fans supplied some energy for the story of a tournament that never lacks for many.

“I just think,” Fieler said, smiling, “they just might like the way we dunk.”